Ranking the five best insert sets of the ultra-modern era
From old designs that were revived to fresh ideas that spawned a number of spinoffs, here are five inserts that have defined the era.
1. Kaboom
Considered arguably the most important insert of the ultra-modern era, no insert set has performed as well on the secondary market and influenced as many spin-offs as Kaboom.
Advertisement
First designed for Panini's 2013-14 Innovation Basketball, the players were hand-drawn by illustrator Gyula Nemeth to resemble comic-book superheroes. The concept immediately captivated collectors and has since become one of the hobby's most coveted chases.
In addition to selling extremely well on the secondary market, the comic-style design has inspired a number of insert sets in the years since, including Manga, Presentations and Prizmania.
In 2025, the set made its debut in Revolution Basketball with the athletes again hand-drawn by Nemeth following an extended period with more photo-realistic player designs.
To date, the highest public record for any Kaboom card is the $225,000 paid in a private sale for a 2018 Panini LeBron James Kaboom Gold /10 BGS 9.5 in 2024.
2. Downtown
While insert sets such as Color Blast and Blank Slate thrive on simplicity, the iconic Downtown cards have been anything but.
Advertisement
First introduced in 2016-17 Panini Studio Basketball as 'From Downtown,' the set has always featured backgrounds unique to the city of the featured player.
The set moved to Panini Cornerstones for 2017 before finally appearing in 2018 Optic Football. Downtown has been a beloved chase for the Optic brand since and is now highly coveted among football and basketball collectors.
Downtown will make its debut with the WNBA as part of 2025 Donruss WNBA.
According to public records, the highest sale for any Downtown card to date is the $108,000 paid for the 2020 Optic Joe Burrow Downtown Gold Vinyl 1/1 BGS 7.5 at Goldin in 2022.
3. Color Blast
Since debuting in 2019 Prizm Baseball, Color Blast has quickly become one of the standout chases from the era.
Advertisement
The design is simple but effective, and features a basic player action shot over a colorful backdrop. The design of the blast itself varies from set to set.
In the years since its launch, Color Blast has expanded to feature more sports and more sets, and has now been spread across basketball, football and soccer as well as the Obsidian, Spectra and Select sets.
Originally featuring a white background, the Color Blast Black design debuted with 2023-24 Obsidian Basketball and has since expanded to Obsidian Football and Select WNBA.
The highest public sale for any card from the set is the $40,000 paid for a 2019-2020 Panini Spectra LeBron James Color Blast BGS 10 Black Label in 2020.
4. Stained Glass
Often associated with the Topps Gallery 'Gallery of Heroes' insert set, the stained glass design was revived during the ultra-modern era by Panini America for 2012-13 Innovation Basketball. Like its predecessor, the cards featured a transparent design and were created using acetate rather than the traditional paperstock.
Advertisement
The set later earned more widespread appeal when it landed in 2019-20 Panini Mosaic Basketball with an updated design, and it has since thrived as part of multiple Prizm Football releases.
To date, the highest public sale for any Stained Glass insert, according to Card Ladder's records, is the $48,000 paid for the 2018 Prizm Josh Allen Stained Glass Black Finite 1/1 in 2024.
Overall, Card Ladder's records have tracked at least nine sales for Stained Glass cards of $20,000 or more and more than 50 sales of $10,000 or more.
5. Blank Slate
Sometimes simple is better, and Blank Slate has carried that theme since its introduction to the hobby in 2017-18 Panini Court Kings Basketball.
Advertisement
The design is anchored by a simple action shot over a bare background. Blank Slate long featured exclusively a white background, but Panini later introduced black and gold backgrounds.
Though most associated with Court Kings Basketball, Blank Slate has expanded to reach the NFL and WNBA under the Origins brand.
One lesser-known fact about Blank Slate has been the card's long history of exceptionally high gem rates, possibly due to the card's textured surface and white background.
The card has been less likely to gem when featuring black and gold backgrounds.
According to Card Ladder, the highest public sale for a Blank Slate card to date is the $17,520 paid for a 2017 Court Kings LeBron James Blank Slate BGS 10 Black Label in 2025.
Ben Burrows is a reporter and editor for cllct, the premier company for collectible culture. He was previously the Collectibles Editor at Sports Illustrated. You can follow him on X and Instagram @benmburrows.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
11 minutes ago
- Yahoo
These People ‘Convinced' Their Partner To Have Kids. Here's How That Worked Out For Them.
We all know — or know of — a couple who broke up because only one of them wanted children, even if that couple is just Sofía Vergara and Joe Manganiello. Whether or not to become parents is one of the most important issues for couples to align on, and when they disagree, it can understandably be their undoing. But life is never that straightforward, and in some cases, one person in the couple can sometimes change their mind about having kids. The other may even make the case to try and 'convince' them to reconsider. This sometimes works out for them and sometimes doesn't, but it's certainly a fine line to tread. Related: 'Deciding to have children isn't something anyone should be pushed into,' Teresha Young, an international wellness and relationship coach told HuffPost. 'If a couple talks things through openly and honestly, and a partner decides of their own accord that they now want children, it can be a natural, healthy and positive shift. This often comes from finding common ground as a team, sharing hopes, and imagining a future together.' We're using the term 'convincing' with a large helping of salt here, because this isn't about coercion or putting pressure on a partner who simply does not want children. It's much more nuanced than that. 'If anyone is being emotionally manipulated, guilt-tripped or blackmailed into parenthood, that's a recipe for disaster,' Young said. 'No one should be forced into making such a significant life decision. That kind of pressure can breed resentment, bitterness, emotional disconnection and withdrawal. It might not surface straight away, but over time it can chip away at the relationship.' In an ideal world, dating experts would typically advise that people start talking about whether or not they want kids in the long term in the first few dates. 'The conversations should begin with discussing your positive childhood memories, what you loved about how you were raised, and then transition into what you may do differently with your kids,' Spicy Mari, a relationship expert featured on Netflix's 'Sneaky Links' and founder of The Spicy Life, told HuffPost. These conversations, Mari said, should take place whether you're in your 20s or your 40s, especially if you know that you feel strongly one way or the other. Still, people often find themselves in a long-term relationship where they don't align with their partner on the kids question, whether they didn't discuss it until they were already invested or one person changed their mind along the way. In this case, Young said to start with curiosity about your partner's position. 'This is not about proving who is 'right,'' the expert said. 'It's about listening with empathy, respecting each other's perspectives, and exploring whether there's room for alignment without pressure or guilt.' If these conversations don't yield any movement on either side, the couple will have to consider whether or not to continue the relationship given this information. For obvious reasons, this isn't a decision to take lightly. 'Every child deserves to grow up in an environment that feels physically, emotionally and psychologically safe,' said Young. 'For that to happen, both people need to genuinely want to become parents. If there's hesitation or a lack of shared desire, there's a risk of creating a situation where a child may not have the best chance to thrive.' HuffPost spoke to five people who say they felt they 'convinced' by their partner to have children, whether or not their relationship worked out in the end. Here's what they told us. The conference bargain 'My husband and I have been together for the past 10 years. On our second date, he said he was looking for something serious and wanted to know if I was looking for the same. I was too busy in my life to invest myself emotionally in a relationship without direction so I gave us a chance. When I was younger I did not know I wanted children. It wasn't until the opportunity to have children presented itself that I knew having children would be a natural next step for me. My husband did not have a strong opinion about having children or not having children. He has two children from a previous marriage, so he did not have a sense of urgency. [He] changed his mind about having a child with me when I was accepted to speak at the International Peace Research Association's conference in Sierra Leone. He was concerned I would not be safe [as an Iranian American psychologist] traveling to Sierra Leone and tried to convince me not to go. I didn't see a point in putting my safety first unless I had a child, so my husband agreed to have a child with me. For this reason, I upheld my end of the bargain by canceling my speaking engagement at the conference in Sierra Leone. [Today], our 8-year old is funny, dynamic and cute. Parenting is a challenge, yet it is a false dichotomy to think that just because something is not easy that it is not worthwhile.' — Dr. Azadeh Weber Slow build 'My wife didn't want kids at first […] because she grew up watching family members who lost their independence after becoming parents. She loved her work, and the idea of trading that in for diapers and sleepless nights didn't seem like a path she wanted to take. But I really wanted kids. I didn't pressure her, though. I started with small conversations, usually while we were doing something relaxed like walking or cooking. I'd say things like, 'If we had a daughter, I think you'd be the one teaching her how to travel light and figure out any airport like a pro,' or, 'I think you'd be the kind of mom who keeps her style and independence, even with a kid on her hip.' I brought it into our day-to-day in a way that wasn't heavy. I made changes to show her it didn't have to look like what she feared. We blocked out full weekends just for ourselves, traveled often, and split all chores. I told her I'd take night shifts if we ever had a baby and that I'd make sure her work still came first when she needed it to. We even talked through how child care would work, who could help us, and what we'd keep doing as individuals and as a couple. None of it happened in one moment. It was a slow build, always honest. Now we have two kids, and she's still doing the work she loves, still traveling, still herself. I didn't convince her with words. I helped her picture a life where having children added to what she already valued, not replaced it.' — James Myers Technical glitch 'We started dating in September 2020. We were together for a year before he allowed me to meet his daughter. (I always knew I wanted children.) I was one of three and from a very big family. I had also lost a child during a brutal miscarriage in my previous relationship. That kind of made it worse for me, I felt that the only way I could get over that was to have a child that survived. I was painfully aware that time was ticking by when we met so I told him during our first phone call that having children was a 'dealbreaker.' He didn't explicitly tell me no. I think that he tried to on our first date, but I maybe didn't want to hear it. He didn't want another child as he had raised his daughter on his own from [when she was] 5 months old. He didn't want to have to go through all that again when he was just 'getting his life back.' I didn't want any stepchildren as that had been my previous situation, and I found it challenging. We blame the app that we met on because we both thought that we had put in our preferences for children. José discussed it with a friend — his words were, 'I don't want another child, but I want her, so that is the price.' We didn't explicitly have the conversation either that I didn't want a stepchild, but I knew that his daughter came with him as a package. I think having our own child has brought the four of us together as a family. His daughter now has a baby brother, and he brings so much joy and light into our lives that we all bond over our love for him. It has been the best thing I've ever done. And my partner says, 'I didn't want this, but now I couldn't be without him.' — Sophie Wilson Baby bucket list 'In the beginning of our marriage, my husband worked at an adolescent psychiatric center. He saw things there that were really hard on him. When I started bringing up that we should start trying, he would get silent and push the subject away. Then one day, he broke the news to me that he didn't want kids anymore. I felt trapped, as I had always wanted to be a mom, and now I'm married to a guy who is taking that dream away from me. The next day, I called my husband's mom and shared with her what he had told me. My in-laws waited a few days and called my husband when they knew I wouldn't be around. I'm so thankful for that phone call as I know my father-in-law told my husband, 'You are going to lose her if you don't give her children. It is your husband responsibility to do so.' A few weeks later [...] I sat down with my husband and explained to him that while I love him so much, I cannot be with someone that I resent for the rest of my life. That was the turning point for us. He finally opened up about the things that he saw at the psychiatric center and how it scared him to have kids. He told me, 'I will give you kids, but I just need some more time to get over what I saw.' Time — OK, I can work with that! We had time. We were only 26 at this point! We worked on a 'Baby Bucket List' of things that we wanted to accomplish before we started trying to have kids. The last thing we had on our Baby Bucket List was to go skydiving together. In the plane 10,000 feet up, I looked at him and said, 'This is the last thing.' Two months later, we went out for a Christmas Eve dinner, just the two of us. It was there that he looked at me and said, 'I'm ready. Thank you for waiting.' We now have two kids, a boy who is 12 and a girl who is 10, and it is wild to me that the scared 20-something guy is the same guy who is helping me raise our kids. Our kids are so lucky to have him as a dad, and I am so blessed to have him as a husband.' — Natasha Colkmire Related... I'm A Surgeon. I'm Also Child-Free — And 6 Words From A Colleague About My Life Left Me Stunned. 6 Things You Should Never Say To Someone Without Kids (But People Do Anyway) Please Stop Telling Me 'Well, You Chose To Have Kids...'Solve the daily Crossword
Washington Post
11 minutes ago
- Washington Post
Brian Robinson Jr. and Terry McLaurin show the harsh business of the NFL
Neither Terry McLaurin nor Brian Robinson Jr. was at Northwest Stadium on Monday night for the Washington Commanders' 31-17 preseason loss to the Cincinnati Bengals. McLaurin's absence — Monday and, worst-case scenario, into the season — matters greatly. Robinson's does not.
Fast Company
12 minutes ago
- Fast Company
Mschf to corporate America: Don't sue us, pay us
The Brooklyn-based art collective has spent the past five years commandeering the internet's attention through product drops like Satan Shoes (Nike Air Maxes filled with blood) and Big Red Boots, alongside community experiments like turning Venmo into a game of Survivor. Mschf's 30ish-person team regularly ruffles the feathers of brands, products, culture, and even its own investors. Over the years, Mschf has faced cease-and-desist orders and lawsuits from the likes of Nike and VF Corp. for turning their products into creative clay. But now Mschf has decided to stop poking fun at brands—at least some of the time—to do business with them. It's launching a creative consultancy, called Applied Mschf, to offer services to between 5 and 10 brands a year, and restructuring its business entirely to support this project. The collective has previously collaborated with companies on one-off products: For Tiffany it made a participation trophy for being rich; for Mattel, it produced a rusted jalopy with 'Wash Me' on the window. But Applied Mschf is a much more ambitious and far-reaching effort. Mschf is codifying its services—including marketing, industrial design, digital design, and even architecture—as a full-on creative consultancy.
